Evidence-informed practices for attentional regulation and gratitude-based change
This micro-credential course explores the intersection of wishful thinking and neurobiology, as Dr. Taryn Grieder endeavours to explain how we create our own reality.
Learn some of the mechanisms at play and why habits like gratitude are a necessary means to improving your circumstances.
Students will gain an understanding of key brain systems involved in gratitude and attentional processes, including the Reticular Activating System, medial prefrontal cortex, and ventral striatum.
The course integrates contemporary neuroscience research, attentional theory, and applied practices—such as gratitude journaling—to demonstrate how repeated cognitive focus can shape neural pathways, influence salience detection, and alter perceptual and behavioural patterns over time.
Through interactive activities and real-world applications, students will explore how gratitude functions as a form of attention training, contributing to shifts in awareness, emotional experience, and decision-making.This course bridges neuroscience and applied practice, offering a deeper understanding of how intentional cognitive focus can reshape neural processing and influence lived experience.
Lessons:
- Foundations of Gratitude and Cognitive Appraisal
- The Brain on Gratitude: Prefrontal Cortex and Reward Systems
- The Role of the Reticular Activating System in Attention and Awareness
- Attention, Expectation, and Perception: A Neuroscience Perspective on “Manifestation”
- Gratitude Journaling as Neural and Attentional Training
- Salience, Bias, and What We Notice
- Neuroplasticity and Habitual Thought Patterns
- From Attention to Action: Behavioural Pathways of Change
- Designing a Gratitude and Attention-Based Practice
Course Details:
Time and date will be confirmed soon. Register your interest now and we will let you know when the program is open!
- Date: TBD
- Time: TBD
- Live Online on Zoom
- OSAP eligible (Coming soon) (Confirm OSAP eligibility here)
Prerequisites:
No formal requirements—only an interest in the subject.
This is a stand alone course but designed to be complementary to those who have completed the Emotional Health Practitioner Program and/or The Neurobiology of the Helping Profession & Neuroscience of Addiction.
Instructor:
Dr. Taryn E. Grieder, M.Ed., Ph.D.
Biology Instructor, Trent University.
How to Register:
Register here
Cost: $350 includes bonus 3-month planner with Neural Network Therapy® tips and tools
Trent alumni receive 10% off. Please email alumni@trentu.ca for more information.
Current Trent undergraduate students receive 20% off. Please email microcredential@trentu.ca for more information.
Current Trent staff and faculty receive 20% off. Please email microcredential@trentu.ca for more information.
NOTE: Only one discount code can be used per order
For further information on this course, please visit the Canadian Family Health Counselling website.
Instructions for applying for OSAP
Document
osap_information_-neurobiology.docx (457.97 KB)